


Message in a bottle

by Eryn_Terry



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Knights of the Fallen Empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 12:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16832866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eryn_Terry/pseuds/Eryn_Terry
Summary: Set during KOFE, after Theron returns. The return of Riya Jihn's ship is both a blessing and a curse as memories of her friends haunt her during a walk through the familiar decks.





	Message in a bottle

**Author's Note:**

> Riya John is my Jedi Knight that romances Doc. She's pretty close to Theron and Lana as they've been the ones shes known the longest.

Her ship was so empty. Her footsteps made hollow metallic noises on the plating below her. They were gone. All of them but her little droid vanished with not so much of a clue to where they were. Kira, Scourge, even Rusk… and Doc. A presence that had once filled the entire ship, mostly due to his own ego, was even more silent than the rest. 

Riya walked slowly, lightly grazing the walls and railings, trying to reach out to whatever was left of them on this ship. Absently recalling debates with Scourge, laughter and sparring sessions with Kira, contests to see who could make Rusk crack a genuine smile, and quiet late nights of whispered words with her secret husband. 

Those were the best times, especially with him. During the day she belonged to the Council and the Republic getting by with only stolen glances and careful words. The nights, however, when the ship was dead asleep, those were his. He was her sanity when everything fell apart, he made sense when it was all chaotic, made her laugh and remember the good in the universe, danced with her to remind her what fun was like, and loved her…so deeply, to remind her she was still a vibrant young woman.

She might not have been headed anywhere in particular, though her feet carried Riya to where she hoped her heart would be, to where it had been in the past. The medical bay. It was colder than she remembered. She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and sat at Doc’s workstation and laid her head down in her arms. The she sound of her breathing on the cold and sterile table made her dark eyes droop and finally close.

******

_Her belt made a satisfying click as Riya strapped on her lightsaber. They had approached Darth Marr’s ship, something at the edge of the core worlds had caught his attention and he messaged her not too long ago that it was urgent she meet with him. Things had been all too quiet since Ziost, it would have been foolish to think that silence would remain. An uneasiness washed over her once more, the second time since approaching, and she felt nauseated._

_She pulled her jacket on and as she turned to leave her quarters a hand gently clapped around her wrist pulling her back in. Riya found herself just inside the doorway and looking up into Doc's brown eyes. A mild annoyance flashed in them only just before turning on his most charming smile. She hadn't heard him come in, her mind was entirely elsewhere._

_“I'd like to make an appointment to see the Hero of Tython.” He whispered and moved closer._

_“I dunno, she's awfully busy.” Riya meant it as a joke but could see immediately that she'd touched upon a sore nerve. Her hands slid up his arms and came to rest comfortably on his chest. “I'm sorry.”_

_He shrugged, “Don't be, beautiful. Things have been more than a little crazy around here. Ancient Sith back from the dead, Emperor destroys a whole planet...”_

_“When I get back, we'll go away, far away and for a very long time.”_

_Doc dipped his head down to graze her neck with feather light kisses, “Promises…”_

_She groaned, “Doc I gotta go.”_

_The words were still on her lips when he descended upon them in a hungry and wanting kiss. The kind of kiss that buckled her knees and made her hold tightly to him. While his arms pulled her close, her hands buried themselves in his soft brown hair. Deeper their kiss became, and deeper still, fogging her head and buzzing her ears until finally, he pulled back letting her breathe._

_It was a while before her brain cleared and she could form a coherent thought, “And i'm supposed to work after that?”_

_“Just giving you something to look forward to.” He smirked but then paused. Suddenly Doc wrapped both of his arms around her, holding her and letting his face fall on her neck. “Come back safe Riya.”_

_She smiled. “Before you know it.”_

*******

The Jedi's eyes opened, back to the present, back from the last time she saw her husband, and noticed something new. A light flickered on and off silently on the base of a holorecorder that she was certain she’d never seen before. Riya sat up and frowned. She'd never known Doc to keep a holo-journal, or anyone else on her ship for that matter. 

She took the little box over to a bio bed and hopped up to sit cross legged. A slow breath of time was the only hesitation, just enough to steal her nerves and activate the recording.

She nearly dropped it. Riya heard a choked cry as breath escaped her lungs at the sight. Staring back at her was what looked like the face of her beloved though completely devoid of life and levity. His eyes wore dark heavy rings underneath, his hair was a tattered mess, and he looked as though he’d not eaten in days.

“Hey gorgeous.” a voice hoarse and weak only completed the image. “I rigged the holorecorder to know only your bioscan. So don't worry about anyone else seeing this. I, uh, I have to leave the ship pretty soon. I tried to stay as long as I could but… your assets are being turned over to the Council including our apartment on Coruscant. They tell me I am to either vacate of my own will, or be charged with trespassing and be arrested.” He laughed a bitter mirthless chuckle, “If they only knew huh, beautiful? Don't worry, I’ve kept our secret safe for… well for when you…. Look they want to tell me you died in that explosion, they want me to move on, let you go, or some kriffing nonsense about how it isn’t healthy to keep hoping you’ll come home. I'm told that I should accept it.”

He sniffed and turned his face from the camera for a moment. His head bobbed with a defiant nod of manic certainty. “No, you’re alive. I know that much. I might be an idiot for a lot of things but I will never believe that you’re gone. And I sure as hell won't let you go. So... I just wanted you to know why I wasn't home when you get back. I'm not sure where i'm going to go. My last lead to your whereabouts is on Tatooine. Who knows gorgeous, maybe I’m still there when you get this message.”

There was a silence. The man looking even more of a hollow shell, as if he was summoning any strength he had left for what he wanted to say next.

“I miss you so much, I feel like I'm going crazy from worry. I can't tell you how many times I’ve pictured that ship exploding, going over and over it all. Maybe if I weren't some useless medic, If I were a soldier, or had some affinity for the Force, maybe I could have been there for you. Maybe you'd be here now. ” A shaky hand reached up and wiped at his weary face. “I better go now, Satele will be here any minute. I love you Riya. I'm waiting for you, somewhere, so don't forget about your Old Doc, ok? Come find me.”

Riya quickly set the recorder down before it fell and shattered. She forced the dark thoughts down to the pit of her stomach and wrapped her arms around herself to hold them there. Every part of her shook violently with emotion. She coughed and bit down hard on her hand to stop the scream that would have sounded in all of Odessan. Tears of grief and loss spilled fast down her cheeks, making the blood of her new wound run down her arm, staining her clothes. Riya looked at the wound wishing her ridiculous medic were still here to make it all go away. 

A voice clearing suddenly made her head jerk up and she was surprised to see Theron Shan crossing the room to where she sat with a kolto kit in hand. She looked back down, not wanting to face anyone like this. Not wanting to be a Jedi, or a Commander, or anything else he might have wanted from her right then.

“I didn't know.” he said quietly, his gaze nodding to the recorder when she gave him a questioning look. 

“No one knew.” She sniffed and watched him carefully bandage her hand. “Jedi code.”

The smirk on Theron’s lips looked about as bitter as her own words sounded. “Right, no _attachments_.”

“There is no emotion, there is peace.” The words tasted foul on her tongue. “Satele Shan can fall right into the deepest pit of hell.”

“I’ve had that feeling once or twice.” his sarcasm did little to mask the sadness behind it.

“Theron, I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry.”

“No,” he shook his head. “No I am. Look, I know Lana and I put a lot of weight on your shoulders, and maybe sometimes too much, but we wouldn't if we didn't know you were the right person for this job. Truth is, we believe in you. I believe in you, and it's been a while since I’ve felt that way about anything.”

Riya lowered her head. “I can't be that person right now.”

“It's ok.” he finished dressing her wound at sat next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her head to rest on him. “I’ll put extra resources into finding Doc, being a spy has advantages after all. And I won't tell Lana, don't worry.”

“Lana already knows.”

“Oh. Well then, any words of wisdom from the Sith?”

“She questioned my taste in men.” she managed a weak smile.

“Yeah well, I wasn't going to say anything.” Theron teased and delighted when she managed to laugh.

“Thank you, Theron.” Riya looked up at him fondly.

“What for?”

“For being here. For coming back. I can't tell you what it means to have you and Lana at my side through all of this.”

“Well there's something that won't ever change.” he kissed the top of her head gently. “I’ll always be by your side, Riya. No matter what.”


End file.
